Intentions to Marry, 1870

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840382, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, November 15 2024

Page 579

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 June 1870

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
114	26 May 1870	Robert Westwood Isabella Miller	Robert Westwood Isabella Miller 💍 1870/8931	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	22 25	Dunedin Saddle Hill	14 months 8 yrs	In the House of East Taieri		26 May 1870	Rev M. Watt
115	31 May 1870	James Ewen McLindsay Christina Wright Niven	James Ewen McKinlay Christina Wright Niven 💍 1870/8529	Widower Spinster	Station Manager	40 30	Dunedin Dunedin	14 days 2 yrs	In the house of Mr. Stafford Stlleul Street Dunedin		31 May 1870	Revd D.M. Stuart
116	1 June 1870	Robert Clark Marion Wallace	Robert Clark Marion Wallace 💍 1870/8370	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	24 18	Dunedin Dunedin	7 yrs 8 yrs	In the house of James Wallace Maclagan Street Dunedin	James Wallace, Father	1 June 1870	Rev Thomas Burns DD
117	1 June 1870	John Archibald Duncan Adams Margaret Chalmers Dicky	John Archibald Duncan Adams Margaret Chalmers Dickie 💍 1870/8226	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	26 26	Dunedin Dunedin	21 yrs 2 yrs	In the house of Thomas Ronaldson Rathay Street Dunedin		1 June 1870	Revd J. Williams
118	6 June 1870	John Forster Bridget O'Connor	John Forster Bridget O'Connor 💍 1870/8721	Bachelor Spinster	Waiter	35 25	Dunedin Dunedin	8 yrs 3 yrs	In St Joseph's Church Dunedin		6 June 1870	Rev D. Moreau
119	11 June 1870	James Knarston Ann Rorwick	James Knarston Annie Marwick 💍 1870/8538	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	28 25	Dunedin Dunedin	2 weeks 6 yrs	In the house of Charles Houston Octagon Dunedin		11 June 1870	Rev D.M. Stuart
120	13 June 1870	Duncan Smith Isabella Campbell	Duncan Smith Isabella Campbell 💍 1870/8535	Bachelor Spinster	Master Mariner	34 27	Dunedin Dunedin	8 yrs 7 yrs	In the house of Duncan Smith Albany Street Dunedin		13 June 1870	Rev D.M. Stuart
121	14 June 1870	Walter Thomas Snell Elizabeth Ann Pouncy	Walter Thomas Snell Elizabeth Ann Pouney 💍 1870/8532	Bachelor Spinster	Dealer	29 21	Dunedin Dunedin	1 week 1 week	In Knox Church Dunedin		14 June 1870	Rev D.M. Stuart
122	14 June 1870	John Miller Eliza Hanlon	John Miller Eliza Hanley 💍 1870/8724 John Miller Hannah Connor 💍 1870/7395	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	22 21	Dunedin Dunedin	4 days 14 days	In St Joseph's Church Dunedin		14 June 1870	Rev D. Moreau

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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What is an Intention to Marry?

The 1854 Marriage Act required Pakeha settlers (and later Maori) to register their intention to marry from 1855. The resulting Notices of intention to marry were sent by the district registrars to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages and bound into large volumes, each containing a year of notices. These registers were eventually deposited with Archives New Zealand.

What information does an ItM record?

A typical Intention to Marry notice records:

the bride and groom's full names
occupation of the groom (and sometimes the bride)
their ages
district where the marriage would take place
how long they had resided in the district
Where the marriage would take place (eg, a specific church)
Who would officiate the marriage (eg, a minister)
The date of the notice and also a date when the certificate was issued. Marriages had to take place within 3 months, and usually occurred within a week or so of the certificate date.
If one of the parties was under 21, a parent who consented to their marriage was usually specified

These details can provide clues for genealogical and historical research. Knowing the date and district makes it easier to look for wedding notices in Papers Past, and the amount of time that the parties had resided in a district can offer clues to whether a person was born in NZ, or when they immigrated.

However, finding individual records in the Intentions to Marry registers was typically a slow and manual process, usually requiring an in-person visit to Archives NZ's Wellington office (during limited opening hours) and using a handwritten card catalogue index to look up individual names.

Eight years of the registers had been digitised by Archives NZ prior to 2024, but even these digital versions required the use of a manual index and usually examining several pages to locate specific records.

What is the Intentions to Marry Project?

This project aims to transcribe the New Zealand Intentions to Marry registers (from 1855 to 1925) with the assistance of new technology (AI), making the records freely available and easily searchable.

The ITM records have also been cross-referenced with the registered marriages at DIA Births, Deaths and Marriages, where possible (a small fraction of the recorded intentions to marry did not become a registered marriage).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

The project is led by Luke Howison, a web developer who made the free genealogical research search tool NZ Ancestor Search Helper and Archway-style Collections Search. There are also some wonderful volunteers assisting with digitising the registers.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

How is the transcription done?

There are several steps to digitising and transcribing the records:

Digitising the registers (taking clean, straight, high-quality photos)
Processing the digitised pages by straightening, cropping and sharpening the images
Transcribing each page with a combination of AI tools
Matching each ITM with a registered marriage when possible
Human verification of the transcribed information

The main LLM (AI) used are the Google Gemini Pro and Flash models, which have excellent 'Vision' capabilities, and a generous free tier.

Archives NZ has released the register years they have digitised (1865-69, 1872, 1874 and 1880) under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

The Intention to Marry registers (up to 1925) are more than 100 years old, so their Crown Copyright has expired, putting them in the public domain. This also applies to any 'mechanical reproductions' (eg, pictures or photocopies) of their content without substantial alteration.

The transcribed records on this website are released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license, which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes, while giving credit to the creator (NZ Intentions to Marry Project).